[sofixa]

> Would you prefer if executives were sent to prison

Actually that'd be great for serious transgressions. They're at the helm, they make decisions, they reap the rewards, why shouldn't they also be punished when the company fucks up seriously?

[KarlKemp]

Anti-trust isn't a crime. And there are reasons for that other than what cynicism suggests. It is far more difficult to pin down the definition, for example, than it is even for typical white-collar crimes (fraud etc.). And it's morally dubious to punish someone in unpredictable ways. (the (civil(!) anti-trust fines don't create new harm, but are intended to fix a situation, which makes them more acceptable. As an analogy: when someone damages your car and has to pay for repairs, that payment is zero-sum for society. if you hit him in the head, that's a net-negative because you (shouldn't/don't) derive as much benefit from it as they are harmed)

Then, practically speaking, the groups involved are simply too large to pin outcomes on individuals, and we don't do guilt-by-association. The timescales are also wrong, because the people responsible will often have moved on long ago. And the people usually do not participate in the spoils anywhere close to linearly with their involvement (which is a good thing because it prevents most corporate malfeasance: you aren't going expose yourself to moral and criminal guilt at a 9-5 job).

Also,, the standard-of-proof that is required is higher ("beyond reasonable doubt", i. e. 95%) than it is in civil cases ("preponderance of evidence", i. e. 50%). This is an outcrop of that moral-guilt vs responsibility thing from above, and also from the fact that in civil court it's often arbitrary what side of the courtroom you end up on.

[sofixa]

I'm not talking about anti-trust per se, even though i think egregious cases still deserve serious punishment.

I mean shitshows like Boeing, Equifax and similar. Where the company showed blatant disregard for safety and security, and it was really not a single person making a mistake, but big parts of the entity being rotten to the core. For such things, the executives should face consequences in the form of a combination of: go to prison for some time, face heavy fines against their personal wealth ( ideally proportional), and have bans on leading any commercial for some time afterwards.

The incentives are all wrong for everything below fraud ( Enron level). Boeing got away with literally manslaughter through criminal negligence, and what consequences where there? The CEO got a golden parachute, and a chief pilot got thrown under the bus. That will make them learn their lesson, right?